Protest is fine – but just this one time

Maverick Couch with the T-shirt (AP)

A T-shirt, as everyone from John Lennon to Robbie Fowler will attest, can be one of the boldest political acts. But for every 100 "Why Always Me?" there are few quite as brave as Maverick Couch's.

Couch, a 16-year-old from Ohio, wore a T-shirt to school bearing the legend "Jesus is Not a Homophobe" on last year's Day of Silence – a national event to raise awareness of victims of homophobic bullying. His school's lawyers told gay rights activists that the tee was "sexual in nature and therefore indecent and inappropriate in a school setting".

Couch later filed a lawsuit which is thought to have nudged his school district into allowing him and other students to wear similar messages on their clothes as a one-off (rather than to school every day). Which is a victory of sorts for a brave, bold move by the young man, but a bit like Rosa Parks only being allowed to sit at the front of the bus once.

Still not enough.